Demythify: More DC Comics New 52 WTF Certified FULL Gatefold Covers Plus New Costume For Nightwing, A Very Different Dr. Fate & A WildStorm Reboot?

Thanks for popping by and checking out my weekly Monday Demythify column.

Following DC Comics New 52 announcement that its April 2013 covers will be gatefold in nature – at no additional cost to readers, with a “WTF Certified” second half to each that have yet to be “officially” revealed – some have slipped onto the internet already.

Nightwing Gets New’ish Costume

New Nightwing artist Brett Booth shared on his website the evolution of his tweaks to Nightwing’s costume. Looks like his mask and gauntlets are different. There may be other tweaks as well.

The cover to April’s Nightwing #19 (with costume tweaks) is on the right and the solicit reads: “‘Death of the Family’ is over, but the laughs continue to plague Nightwing. But it can’t be him—can it?”

My money on who is on the other side of the cover is the Creeper. He also laughs a lot almost as much, if not more than the Joker. This would also fulfill one of the teases DC execs shared with Buzzfeed that read (emphasis added to Creeper comment):

• Booster Gold reappears while an entire team disappears
• One team is trapped in a bottle while another is changed completely
• Some heroes change their colors and other change allegiances
• Pandora battles to the death
• A close encounter of The Dark Knight kind
• There’s a new, old Creeper and some old New Gods.
• One hero quits, and another hero dies

A lot more to look forward to with the April 2013 comic book solicitations some of which I already sifted through for you.

First image with the new arm stripes! So I can now finally talk about things again! WOOT!

Fun times ahead.

Earth 2’s Dr. Fate: Egyptian Avatar?

Artist Brett Booth also revealed the evolution of his design for Earth 2’s new Dr. Fate on his website.

His comments with the art include musings by writer James Robinson that reveals a bit of his intent for the character.

The cover to the right for Earth 2 #11 teases that the second half of the WTF gatefold cover includes another new Justice Society member New 52 debut: “As Dr Fate emerges as the latest hero on Earth 2, what other heroes make a most unexpected appearance?”

Below are Booth’s Dr. Fate pics including his commentary below.

From Left to Right the artist commentary:

“Head, shot to show how the helmet works…

This is the original drawing, a bit busy, but I was trying to use many Egyptian mythology sources, from the flail and septor to the ankh and Eye of Ra. James wanted him to reflect Egypt, not just the ankh part of it.

In his original colors…. It’s a complex costume but I like this on the best still… got all the Egypt bits I wanted into the design…

DC was worried it might be too busy so it was trimmed down. The purists will shit a brick as they have already deemed the new design too busy. They want simple and it’s funny I used his old giant undies as the base for the belt. Strange as Egyptian designs were intricate and beautiful. I think it’s people own preference of simplicity that is the stumbling block. I like complexity, adds depth to things. Simple is fine but Fate is complex, ancient and otherworldly, he should reflect that.

And then tried it in grey….

And finally black. I like the black better than the grey…. Was sad to loose the blue as it’s the color of Egyptian royalty but the black does add a bit of spooky to him 😉 “

Who do you think is the new Earth 2 hero on the second half of the gatefold cover?

New 52’s Stormwatch Gets Wildstorm Reboot?

Writer Jim Starlin takes over Stormwatch and changes the team wholly based on the issue #19 solicit: “Team StormWatch is lost in a dimension shift—so what team will rise and take their place?”

Is “dimension” code for “multiverse”?

Looks like Stormwatch is replaced by… Stormwatch? Check out the real gatefold cover sketch for Stormwatch #19 below. The cover to the right was a filler cover because the team did not meet the solicitation deadline according to Jim Starlin on his Facebook account.

The real cover to 19 and the cover to 20 are below. As you can see the new yet more classic versions of Apollo and Midnighter remain beyond April.

For the Stormwatch #19 cover on the above left, Jim Starlin identifies those “other dimension” Stormwatch members on the right part of the cover as follows:

“From the upper left hand corner and going clockwise, shown on the cover is Hellstrike, the Forecaster, Midnighter, the Engineer, Apollo, Jenny Soul, the Weird and Storm Control.”

Will this huge change have you revisit the DC New 52’s Stormwatch?

April 2013 Previews Spoils Detective Comics #19 Full WTF Cover

Pick up Diamond’s current Previews Edition as it reveals the full cover to Detective Comics #19 which would have been the series’ #900 issue if it was not relaunched with the rest of DC Comics with the New 52. The solicit reads: “In a special oversized celebratory issue, Batman is challenged by the “Mystery of the 900″!” Below is the full cover to the issue.

What happened to the Man-Bats? Their faces look either Jokerized or Penguinized or something else?

Beyond the above and the Red Hood issue, have you seen any more WTF moments revealed?

About The Author

John Babos

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!

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